The old Mercedes dealership at 520 West 41st Street and Eleventh Avenue is meeting a quick demise, paving the way for Silverstein Properties to begin preparation work for their future mixed-use development. While the project must still pass through ULURP, YIMBY revealed preliminary renderings last June, showing a 1,400-unit tower rising above a significant retail podium. Now we have a few overhead shots of demolition progress taken from the nearly-completed Skye, just a few hundred feet to the northwest.
The Far West Side was intended to be primarily office under the mid-2000s re-zoning, but demand has proven stronger for residential construction, which is why Silverstein is pursuing the changes through ULURP. As the application currently stands, the resulting development would stand over 100 stories tall, becoming the city’s largest residential building both in terms of actual floor count and number of units, and its total scope would span 1.7 million square feet.
Massing diagrams 520 West 41st Street, via the draft EIS
With 1,400 proposed units, the project would be the largest residential development in New York City, passing the Moinian Group’s nearly-completed Skye, at 605 West 42nd Street. If any neighborhood needs a drive for increased pedestrianization, it’s the West 42nd Street corridor, and the blocks behind the rump of the Port Authority are especially egregious, dominated by overpasses and offshoots of the various arteries that connect Midtown to New Jersey.
Impetus for change will hopefully occur sooner than later with the arrival of thousands of new residents, which will also hopefully encourage the city to restart construction on the 7-line station on 41st Street and 10th Avenue. Awarding additional residential density in exchange for the creation of a fund to finish the station would be a small step towards solving the larger housing crisis while also building out existing capabilities.
Demolition of old Mercedes dealership at 520 West 41st Street
In the meantime, another overhead shot of the project shows how the greater neighborhood is now coming together. Extell’s 551 Tenth Avenue is receiving its cladding, and with Skye set to open in the coming months, the current boom will begin to be felt at the street-level, where it is still not obvious.
No formal completion date for 520 West 41st Street has been released but per the ULURP application, Silverstein estimated a 2017 start for construction and a 2020 completion date.
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I believe Normandy Court on the Upper Eastside is the largest rental building with 1477 units